Ring of the Gods
by Jedi Buttercup
Summary: Buffy goes searching for a new Slayer and finds much, much more.
1. Ring of the Gods

**Title**: Ring of the Gods

**Author**: Jedi Buttercup

**Rating**: T

**Disclaimer**: The words are mine; the worlds are not. I claim nothing but the plot.

**Prompt**: tth100 #88, Ring

**Summary**: B:tVS, Stargate: SG-1. Buffy goes searching for a new Slayer and finds much, much more. 700 words.

**Spoilers**: B:tVS post-"Chosen"; SG-1 general season 8.

**Notes**: Yet another way Buffy might have come to the attention of Stargate Command. (I know the Major is actually a regular guest on Atlantis these days, but he had to be _somewhere_ between his appearance in SG-1 Season 7 and when he went to the Pegasus Galaxy a year and a half later).

* * *

Buffy extended a cautious hand to caress the metallic curve of the Stargate. Giles had called it 'The Ring of the Gods'-- apparently it showed up in some book of his or other-- but whatever its name was, it was pretty impressive. When she thought 'portal' she usually pictured the Hellmouth or a raggedy, colorful tear in the sky; she hadn't expected anything like this. "Wow."

"Amazing, isn't it?" Riley's friend asked, with the nonchalant smugness of someone who _knows_ he has the coolest job in all the world.

The metal tingled under Buffy's palm just the tiniest bit; she left her hand pressed against it for a moment, trying to absorb the concept of so many other _worlds_ full of people spread across the night sky, and threw him a wry, sideways glance. "You can't tell me it's _always_ puppies and sunshine out there; I have eyes, you know, and there's an awful lot of guys with guns guarding this thing."

He smiled wryly back. "Of course it isn't," he replied. "There are things out there that make your garden-variety vampire look like a bloodthirsty chihuahua. That's one of the reasons we asked you here."

"That, and the fact we already knew your deep dark secret?" she teased.

"I don't know what you're talking about, ma'am; I don't have any deep dark secrets." His tone was bland, but there was a definite hint of twinkling going on in his eyes.

Buffy found it surprisingly difficult to resist twinkling back. He was disarmingly cute, not gigantically tall like most of the soldiers she'd seen here, and he actually had a sense of humor. _Bad Slayer_, she told herself, and rolled her eyes. "That's not what I meant," she scolded him.

When Riley had first told her that an Air Force major he knew had discovered a Slayer on his base, her mind had immediately gone in an Initiative direction. She'd been worried for the girl, especially when Willow reported all the security blocking her attempts to research the place; when the coven's scrying had shown not one but _three_ Slayers constantly disappearing from their reach under Cheyenne Mountain, Buffy had called in all the favors the Council had with the American military and demanded to speak to the people in charge. So far, she'd been surprised and pleased with their operation-- but they hadn't let her meet the new Slayers yet, and she certainly had no reason to trust him.

Trust _them_, she corrected herself irritably. Stupid Slayer hormones!

"I see the tour's going well?"

Buffy's guide turned toward one of the wide, open doorways to the Gateroom, posture straightening immediately. The intruder was tallish and bespectacled, attractive in a scholarly kind of way; Buffy had met him before, with the graying, sarcastic General in the introductory meetings. At the time, he had reminded her of a younger, relatively harmless version of Giles; from the major's reaction, though, it was obvious that wasn't all there was to him.

"Quite the place you have here," Buffy said neutrally. She gave the Gate a final pat, then walked back down the ramp toward her guide. "Major Lorne's been very helpful."

"Mmm," Dr. Jackson said, glancing between the two of them with a mildly amused expression. "I can see that."

Was he _teasing_ her? Buffy blinked at him in surprise, and found herself reevaluating the place a little. Giles had heard of this guy; he wasn't just a soldier in baggy clothes playing civilian scientist to try to soothe her into thinking they were nice people. The General's friendly attitude toward him could maybe have been for show, but the major-- and the Gateroom guards-- were treating him with actual respect, and he seemed to have no fear of _them_.

Maybe this place really _wasn't_ another Initiative. Maybe she really had just stumbled onto a significant new ally-- one with their own problems, but who could also significantly help the new Council.

The thought cheered Buffy immensely. "I have to say, though," she said airily, "when he said he was going to show me a ring, this isn't quite what I had in mind."

Their reactions were everything she could have hoped for.

-fin-


	2. A New Challenge

**Title**: A New Challenge

**Author**: Jedi Buttercup

**Rating**: T

**Disclaimer**: The words are mine; the worlds are not. I claim nothing but the plot.

**Prompt**: tth100 #41, Doctor

**Summary**: B:tVS, Stargate: SG-1. Buffy meets with the General and considers her options. 1000 words.

**Spoilers**: B:tVS post-"Chosen"; SG-1 general season 8.

**Notes**: I _wasn't_ going to write a sequel to "Ring of the Gods". I thought it was complete enough in and of itself. But I got to thinking after so many of you asked about the three slayers, and this came pouring out of my fingers.

* * *

"Riley," Buffy said, startled, as a parade of uniforms entered the conference room.

He looked _different_ in his uniform, at the head of a line of other former Initiative soldiers. Older maybe? More mature? Looking at him, their history together seemed absurdly improbable; she couldn't imagine this serious, military young man having a sexathon with her in a frat house, or getting suck jobs from the vampire equivalent of whores.

"Ms. Summers," he replied, with a nod. His wife wasn't with him today-- which, how did that work with the whole fraternization thing?-- but she guessed all the brass in the room was having a similar effect; he hadn't been this formal with her the last time they'd talked on the phone.

"Major Lorne," he said next, nodding to the man seated to her left.

"Captain Finn," Lorne replied. "It's good to see you again."

"Likewise, sir," Riley said.

Buffy's stomach did a strange swoopy thing at the sound of her macho former boyfriend calling her current crush 'sir'. She could feel the hot rush of a blush creeping up her cheeks, and mentally kicked herself for it; after all she'd been through, shouldn't she be past this kind of teenage emotional one-upmanship? She swallowed, shoving the event to the back of her brain as fast as she could, and turned her attention to the general, who had started to say something about 'the reason we've asked you here.'

As it happened, Riley had come bearing proof: records and footage that had survived the meltdown of the Initiative, verifying the information Buffy and Giles had shared with these people earlier in the week. They had been very polite in the initial meetings, very careful not to say "I don't believe you" and "I can't imagine what the President was thinking sending you here", but the implications had been there, despite Dr. Jackson's repeated outbursts of "That would explain so much!" and Major Lorne's personal testimony about his encounter with a vampire. It was irritating to see their suspicions vanish so quickly over a few sheaves of paper that could-- after all-- have been faked, but mostly Buffy was relieved they were finally getting this hoop out of the way.

Just one more to jump through. "So," she said, when the conversation reached a pausing point. "About your three Slayers. When do I get to meet them?"

The general cleared his throat. "Before we do that," he said, lacing his fingers together atop his the table. "I know why you said you came here, and I know why the President says he sent you, and I know what the, uh, Slayers themselves are looking for, but I need to know. What do you really see happening here?"

Buffy remembered Lorne referring to "one of the reasons we asked you"; she remembered him comparing vampires to bloodthirsty Chihuahuas; she remembered having an inkling that this might be the most important contact the new Council could ever make. She glanced sideways at Giles and thought about his advice to give away nothing unnecessary and withdraw with as much advantage as possible. Screw it, she thought.

Giles might not want to be beholden to the US Military, but _she_ wasn't in any kind of official position with the Council anymore, and Rome was getting stale now that Dawnie was in college and the Immortal had lost his luster. Wasn't acting on instinct one of the things that made a Slayer so effective? And wasn't she-- love life aside-- one of the best Slayers ever?

"I could use a new challenge," she said.

In her peripheral vision, Giles went scarily pale; across from her, Willow choked, then straightened in her seat, an argument building in her eyes. Buffy closed her mind to the swift knock of Willow's telepathic contact, and tried not to think about the argument they'd be having later.

"Meaning?" the general asked, his eyebrows inching upward.

"Your Slayers are going to need training, no matter how good they already are," she said. "You know I'm the best person for the job, and I've been semi-retired since Sunnydale, so it's not like I have anything else to do. If that means I have to join your project and help you fight your monsters-of-the-week..." She shrugged.

The general looked surprised, but pleased; next to him, Dr. Jackson looked as if he'd just won the lottery. Buffy could just imagine all the questions she was going to get from the archaeologist later; hopefully, she could pawn him off on Andrew or somebody, clog up the Council's email instead of boring her to tears. Riley looked more proud than anything, which she found mildly irritating; he hadn't had the right to be _anything_ on her behalf in several years.

She refused to look at Lorne. There'd be time for _that_ later, hopefully in a more private setting. Maybe involving an exchange of first names, even.

"In that case," General O'Neill said, and proceeded to rewrite the plans for her entire future.

Her students turned out to be a Major, a Lt. Colonel, and a young Lieutenant who'd just joined the program. The Colonel was on the front-line team, very visible on the base; she was the one Major Lorne had seen in action. The Doctor-Major, on the other hand, rarely went anywhere or did anything that would expose her heightened abilities; there'd been a close call the year before when she'd been shot in front of Dr. Jackson, but they'd managed to keep the knowledge of her superhuman healing limited to one other doctor and the lead team. After the emergency surgery, they'd sent her home for a few months to 'recover' and spend time with her adopted daughter.

Buffy liked them, more than she'd expected. Giles and Willow were predictably pissed and Dawn very teary when she called her, but it didn't shake Buffy's resolve; she knew she'd done the right thing.

Now, if she could just get them to let her redesign her BDUs...

-fin-


	3. The Queen Stands Alone

**Title**: The Queen Stands Alone 

**Author**: Jedi Buttercup

**Disclaimer**: The words are mine; the worlds are not. I claim nothing but the plot.

**Rating**: T

**Summary**: B:tVS, SG-1. Buffy's not used to being the one who has to stay behind. 700 words.

**Spoilers**: B:tVS post-"Chosen"; SG-1 general s8; minor SG-Atlantis s2

**Notes**: Follows "Ring of the Gods" and "A New Challenge". I didn't mean for it to turn out angsty, but my muse had other ideas.

-----------------------------------------------------

Buffy couldn't believe her luck. The youngest of the three Slayers she'd taken under her wing, Lieutenant Laura Cadman, had just been approved for the Atlantis project-- and so had Major Lorne, whose first name she'd finally winkled out of him on the third date after promising never, ever to tell. She, on the other hand, was stuck at the SGC, unable to so much as take an afternoon jaunt to the Alpha site.

Something about the tie between Mother Gaia, the Scythe, and the eldest Slayer meant that even an hour out of contact with home soil threatened to reverse the dispersal of the Slayer line. That hadn't been at all fun to find out; fainting off world in the middle of a training mission had been bad enough, but returning home to the news that all of the new Slayers had fainted right along with her had been a nasty wake-up call. It didn't seem to work the other way around-- Lieutenant Colonel Carter still went out with SG-1 like she always had, for example, and she wasn't the only Slayer regularly gating offworld-- but Buffy herself was essentially shackled to her home planet. Funny how that suddenly seemed like such a terrible sentence, when she'd lived most of her life without knowing that there was any other option.

Colonel Carter and Doctor-Major Fraiser were already so close, in both friendship and in age, that Buffy often felt as though she were ordering her mother around trying to train them; Laura, on the other hand, was close enough to Buffy's own age that she'd become a good friend. And as for Major Lorne! They said Colonel Carter was cursed; Buffy rather thought she'd come out ahead if they measured their disastrous dating histories side by side.

The worst part was that Buffy actually had the stupid Ancient gene. Not as strongly as the wonderboy who was currently in charge out in Pegasus, Major Sheppard, but a close match for her own Major's. Unfortunately, it looked like all she'd be able to do with it was light up whatever toys the Lanteans saw fit to send back and function as a back-up seat warmer should General O'Neill ever be unavailable to man the Antarctic weapons chair. She felt as though she'd been promised a night out at the Prince's ball, only to discover that her carriage had turned back into a pumpkin before she even got there.

Still, it would be cruel of her to rain on Laura's parade, or send her boyfriend off with anything less than the appearance of her full support. Just because she hadn't successfully done the relationship-by-mail thing in the past didn't mean it wouldn't work for her now... right?

"Of course I'm happy for you," she murmured, sharing a Slayer-strong hug with her friend. "This is an amazing opportunity. Just don't forget about me, okay? And don't forget your training, either! I hear there's a woman on the lead team with alien DNA that makes her stronger and faster than normal; you might try sparring with her."

"It won't be the same," Laura said over her shoulder, tears audible in her voice. "I'll miss you, you know. I really wish you could come."

"I wish I could, too," Buffy said. And she did; there was little tying her to Earth anymore, other than the obvious. She was out of the loop with the Watcher's Council and the former Scoobies these days, and Dawnie was an adult now, fully capable of making her own decisions.

The Powers that Unfortunately Be weren't ready to let her go, though, so as always, it was up to Buffy to pick herself up and keep on going. Maybe, if she was lucky, Willow would figure out a way to transfer the Gaia-link to another of the Slayers soon and she could follow. Faith deserved the recognition after everything she'd been through, and if not her, surely Kennedy wouldn't mind getting to wear the Queen Slayer title.

But until then-- well, the hardest thing in this world is to live in it, she reminded herself, and let go of Laura. "Write to me?" she asked.

Laura nodded. "Of course."

--


	4. Proverbial Wisdom

**Title**: Proverbial Wisdom 

**Author**: Jedi Buttercup

**Disclaimer**: The words are mine; the worlds are not.

**Rating**: K+

**Summary**: _Buffy's feeling a little lonely in the wake of Lorne and Lt. Cadman's departure, and befriends someone else who was left behind_. 10 x 200 words.

**Spoilers**: B:tVS post-"Chosen". Stargate SG-1 AU, begins between Seasons 8 & 9 through episode 9.6 "Beachhead"; brief references to Atlantis

**Notes**: Challenge drabbles, set in the "Ring of the Gods" universe.

* * *

**Better Late than Never**

Buffy's first year under the Mountain had gone by in a blur. Getting to know the three Slayers she'd ditched the Council for, assessing their skills and coming up with training schedules, and dating the squee-worthy Major Lorne (who was everything she'd been looking for but hadn't quite found in Riley) had kept her too busy to do much extra socializing. It hadn't helped that she couldn't go off-world with any of the teams; hand-to-hand training sessions didn't inspire the kind of camaraderie that only came after relying on each other in the field.

It wasn't until Evan and Laura left for Atlantis, however, that she realized just how isolated she'd become. She still had several casual friends on base, but she'd lost her Xander and Willow equivalents in one blow, and the SGC's closest approximation of a Giles was the insatiably curious archaeologist she'd been dodging since Day One.

She hadn't been interested in playing sixth wheel in the circle of Sam's and Janet's friends, but they'd been scattering to the four winds lately. Maybe Daniel could use a new friend now, too?

_Better late than never,_ she mused, and ordered an extra mocha on her way to work.

* * *

**Gift Slayer**

Daniel frowned at the paper coffee cup standing atop his worktable in its little cardboard jacket, then at Buffy, perched next to it, swinging her legs aimlessly as she stared at him. "What's, uh... what's going on?" he asked warily, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Nothing," she said, shrugging and widening her green eyes innocently. "I just thought, um. I wondered how you were doing with your Slayer research?"

She smiled sheepishly as he continued to stare, completely baffled as to why she was bringing this up now. He'd long since given up getting any interesting answers out of her; she usually played dumb or claimed imminent "training sessions" with Major Lorne or one of the Slayers whenever he tried to corner her with a question.

...Of course! How could he have forgotten? Lorne and Lt. Cadman were already gone, and Sam and Janet were busy packing today. "You're _bored_," he accused her, amused.

"Guilty as charged?" she replied, shrugging. "C'mon. Don't look a gift Slayer in the mouth. I have three hours to waste before I get to beat up Marines today."

"Three hours?" He grinned and reached for a notepad. "Okay. Just remember, though, you asked for it..."

* * *

**Silver Lining**

Being around Daniel made Buffy nostalgic for long afternoons among the books at Sunnydale High. He had all the enthusiasm and intellectual arrogance of dork-edition Wesley, leavened with the wisdom and anchoring presence of librarian-edition Giles; he was endlessly curious about the weirdest things, but he was also _respectful_ and had a wicked sense of humor. He should have been born into a Watcher family; there were so many girls out there who could really use a mentor of his caliber.

Those first three hours she'd given him for questions dragged on _forever_, but once he'd got all the basics down their conversations actually started getting _interesting_. She found herself emailing Willow and Dawn more than she had in months, digging up factoids for him and even asking questions of her own. _That_ was awkward for awhile-- they were still upset with her for leaving them behind-- but a relief, too. It gave her an excuse to talk to them again without apologizing for doing what she'd known she had to do.

She still missed Evan and Laura fiercely, but every cloud had a silver lining; she'd made a new friend and reconnected with her family. Things were looking up.

* * *

**Greener Pasture**

"You're _what_?" Buffy objected, fork dropping to her plate as she stared at him.

"I thought you knew," Daniel said, wincing. He still had no idea why she'd decided to befriend him that summer, but he'd been enjoying getting to know her; it had helped him understand what Sam and Janet were going through, and she was a fascinating person in her own right. He hadn't known she was getting so attached, though. "You were here for the whole _Prometheus_ mess," he pointed out. "I was always going to try again; it was just a matter of waiting until it was safe, and another ship was available."

Buffy glanced across the cafeteria where Atlantis' senior staff were clustered. They'd been mostly locked up in meetings since they arrived, but she'd told Daniel she intended to ask if they'd take a couple of care packages back with them. It made sense now why she hadn't asked _him_; she hadn't realized he'd be going, too.

"The space grass is greener out there, huh?" she asked sadly.

"I'm sorry," he replied, shrugging helplessly. "I know you wish you could go, too."

She gave him a crooked smile and went back to her meal.

* * *

**Story of Her Life**

Buffy sulked for two days after Daniel dropped the bomb about Atlantis, then sucked it up and headed for his lab, bearing cookies and Starbucks. He'd filled the Watcher-shaped hole in her life perfectly, and she'd miss him like crazy-- but it wasn't his fault the magic that had used her and the Scythe to activate every Potential Slayer on Earth had effectively chained her to the planet. He deserved to achieve his dreams, even if it did mean she was getting left behind _again_.

"God save me from my friends," she muttered under her breath as she walked. "Because I can defend myself from my enemies. Story of my life."

At least the SGC had finally grabbed a few more Slayers from other government programs, so her schedule was full again, and she'd already befriended Carolyn, who'd taken Janet's job when the Frasiers moved to Nevada.

She took a deep breath as she reached Daniel's open door. "Mocha and cookies?" she offered hopefully.

Daniel looked up from the box he was packing and studied her for a moment before waving her in. "Caffeine and chocolate," he sniffed appreciatively, then smirked. "So, you've forgiven me, then?"

She rolled her eyes.

* * *

**Trouble with a Capital T**

"_Her_ Daniel?" Buffy shook her head, laying the back of her hand on Daniel's warm cheek like her mother had always done when she was sick. "Just what have you gotten yourself into this time, mister?" She'd heard about him and alien women, but this was the first time she'd seen evidence first hand.

"A whole lotta trouble, looks like," Colonel Mitchell said as he and Teal'c entered the room. She didn't know Mitchell very well yet-- he'd just been assigned to the program-- but Buffy sympathized with his rumored disappointment over arriving just in time to see the last of the old SG-1.

She agreed with him about Vala, too. They said not to judge a book by its cover, but if that woman was as much like teenaged Faith as she seemed at first glance, _cover_ was all she ever showed to others-- and that cover showed trouble with a capital T.

Teal'c nodded to her as he approached to examine the Goa'uld bracelet on Daniel's wrist. He looked as fearsomely muscular as ever despite the Jedi-wear, but even more serious than usual.

"Recognize it?" Mitchell asked, hopefully.

"Indeed," Teal'c affirmed, and Buffy let out a relieved sigh.

* * *

**Bogeyman's Bogey(wo)man**

Buffy followed Daniel and Vala down a dark tunnel under Glastonbury Tor, listening to them bicker with a smile on her face and the Scythe clasped in one hand. On-Earth missions were the only ones she ever got to go on, and they were usually pretty boring; this one, however, reminded her a lot of patrolling the Sunnydale sewers...

...Which, why was she feeling nostalgic about that, again?

Anyway, she was _here_, with SG-point-five, looking for _Merlin's treasure_, and best of all, Daniel had missed the _Daedalus_. The only thing better would have been Evan coming back to lead an SG team instead of playing military second in Atlantis, but since she couldn't have that, she'd settle for getting to keep her friend.

"...What if it senses our presence and awakens hungry for human flesh?" Vala's voice carried to the Slayer-- still whining about not having a weapon, Buffy surmised-- and she smirked, amused.

"That doesn't quite sound the Ancients' style," Daniel replied, dryly.

"Besides, that's what I'm here for," Buffy added flippantly. "Send a bogeyman to catch a bogeyman, right?"

Vala wrinkled her brow in confusion, but Daniel snorted with amusement.

Buffy grinned. She was having so much fun.

* * *

**House of Gold**

"Well that figures," Colonel Mitchell said, wryly. "Room full of gold and jewels, and Dr. Daniel Jackson finds the one book."

Buffy grinned, and remembered something Giles had once said to her when she'd made an observation about his fetish for dusty old tomes. "Didn't you know? A book holds a _house_ of gold. What would he need the rest of it for?"

Daniel shot her a reproving look over his glasses, and Mitchell chuckled. "So what's it about?"

"Actually, it's a story," Daniel replied, absently caressing the pages of the ancient volume.

Buffy tuned them out as he began the explanation-- Watcher speak had never held her interest very well-- and glanced around, eyeing the other treasures scattered around. Merlin's treasure; it was still a little difficult for Buffy to wrap her mind around that. Treasure Mitchell had won after pulling a sword from a _stone_.

"Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of England," she muttered, remembering the Disney cartoon. Then she pictured Giles' expression if she were to tell him the reborn King Arthur was in the American military.

She laughed quietly, then tuned back in to her friend's lecture.

* * *

**Where There's a Will**

After the trip to England, Buffy settled back under the Mountain while the others went off to other planets-- galaxies, even!-- without her. She'd been there for Daniel's second Ascension-- a brain-breaky development she tended to forget about when kicking her feet up on his desk and teasing him about "his" space pirate-- but his "visit" with the Ori was the first time he'd nearly died since they'd become friends.

She hated the whole situation. She'd fought gods and incorporeal entities before, but only one at a time, and the costs had been devastating. If these Ori made like the First, a _lot_ of people were going to die.

Well, where there was a will, there was a way-- and the SGC held some pretty darn willful people. Including Buffy. Maybe the Powers had meddled with the Scythe to keep her here? Maybe they were Ancients, too-- ones that used Slayers and Champions instead of meddling directly?

Regardless, it made her job even more important. She wouldn't leave now, even if she could-- and from his letters, she doubted Evan would return from Atlantis anytime soon. Maybe it was time to reassess more than just her status as Queen Slayer.

* * *

**Living on Hope**

He'd taken it well, Buffy thought. At least, she thought he had; it was hard to pick emotional undertones out of a digital recording. As far as she could tell, he was saddened, but understanding; she wasn't sure if that made it better or worse.

She'd waited awhile to send the Dear Evan video, maybe hoping she'd talk herself out of it. He'd been an amazing boyfriend-- sexy, smart, funny, totally not intimidated by her Slayerness-- but while she loved him more unreservedly than she had Riley, she didn't live and breathe him the way she had Angel, or even Spike.

Besides. He had the Wraith to fight, and a job he loved; Buffy had the Scythe, and the Ori were coming. She'd heard it said that he who lives on hope will die fasting; it was useless to keep hoping for a "one day" that might never come. It was time to live in the real world, and that world wasn't one they shared anymore.

She came to work a few days with reddened eyes, but said nothing. Daniel commiserated-- he was still mildly narcoleptic and feeling guilty about Vala's departure-- but no one else noticed.

Life went on.

-x-


End file.
